Day 162: To Korea

I was a bit late getting out the door, but Japan's lovely public transit still got me through to the airport with plenty of spare time. My flight out was a bit interesting. I was on a double decker airplane, which I believe is a first for me. It was by far the most space and comfort I've ever had on a plane. Instead of seats you sat in a fully adjustable pod that you could electronically position however you wanted, including reclining it to a full bed. Since my flight was less than two hours I didn't try to sleep at all, but having the luxury of being unable to touch the seat in front of me was very nice. I landed in the smaller airport of Gimpo in Seoul, and in the time it took me to go through customs and reclaim my backpack I only saw 2 other white people.

Currency in South Korea has also been a bit strange. The exachange rate is about 1000 won = $1, which isn't that unusual, but until a couple of years ago the largest bill they had was 10,000 won ($10). They now have a 50,000 won, but it's still new and the infrastructure is still updating for it. Because of all this, when I took out cash from the bank machine it came in 35 10,000 won bills. The metro system is in many ways similar too Tokyo's, and for the most part very easy to get around in. I ignored the advice of the information desk guy in the airport and decided to get to my hostel by metro instead of by airport train. It took quite a bit longer and involved a few transfers, but it cost me less than 1/4 as much and was a good chance to figure things out a bit.

The hostel is in a university neighborhood, and there are lots of good, cheap restaurants around. The big specialty in the area is fried chicken and beer restaurants, which doesn't really strike me as terribly Korean, but there are plenty of more traditional things around too. I spent the afternoon wandering around the area, but didn't try visiting anything specific.

It was a very muggy, hazy day outside, and this morning it's raining out. Apparently two typhoons have just passed and it has rained a lot in the last two weeks, so it could be a very wet week for me.